Lake Como · Italy
A restored 1908 villa on the western shore. A spa carved into the original stone cellars, and a kitchen that shops in Como each morning.
The House
Maison Aurelle sits on a terraced slope above Tremezzina, twenty minutes by boat from Bellagio and a little over an hour from Milan. The family’s third generation restored the house between 2017 and 2019, working with a studio in Como that kept the original terrazzo, the iron windows and the cellar vaults.
There are twenty-four rooms and no two are alike. The spa occupies the old wine cellars. Breakfast is served on the terrace from seven, or in your room, at whatever hour you happen to keep.
Rooms & Suites
Dining
There is no fixed menu. Chef Elena Vasari writes the evening’s four courses after the market, and the kitchen serves whatever the lake and the hillside gave up that day perch from Menaggio, chestnuts from the woods above Griante, tomatoes that travelled eleven kilometres.
Breakfast is on the terrace from seven. Lunch is light and mostly outdoors. Dinner is served in the old dining room, at eight.
The vaults were cut into the hillside in 1908 to hold the family’s wine at a steady twelve degrees. The wine moved out in 2019. What went in was a spring-fed pool, a steam room carved from the same rock, and two treatment rooms that still smell faintly of the stone.
There is no music down there and no reception desk. You book the hour you want at breakfast.
The vaults · nine metres<br>below the house
Experiences
A boat leaves the jetty at seven for Bellagio, an hour before the ferries start and the shore wakes up.
With the chef, at the stalls he actually buys from, and back in time for lunch.
Up through the chestnut woods on the mule track the merchants used, to the ridge above Griante.
Six seats, one long table in the vaults, and whatever the kitchen feels like cooking that night.
Experiences
Three nights
Three nights for two, dinner on the first evening, and the boat to Bellagio on whichever morning turns out clear.
November – March
The ferries stop, the terraces empty, and the vaults become the warmest room in the house. Breakfast and the spa included.
The Journey
Milan Malpensa78 km · 1 h 10
Milan city52 km · 55 min
Lugano44 km · 50 min
From ComoHourly · 45 min
From BellagioEvery 40 min · 20 min
A car and driver from any airport, and a private launch from Como or Bellagio. Tell us the flight and we will be there.
Western shore · 45°59′N 9°13′E
